Evergreen A through to Mc Calmount Cup Final

Evergreen A 4 Thomastown Utd 2

Evergreen A are into this years Mc Calmount Cup Final following a hard fought victory over Thomastown Utd.

From the very first whistle of this match both sides served up, to the large attendance, a pulsating encounter signalling both club’s intent to get to this year’s Mc Calmount Cup Final.

Thomastown won the toss and lost no time, 10 seconds, to go a goal up through a brilliant finish by Stevie Connolly after he stole in behind the Evergreen defence to pounce on a superb through ball and finish to the net brilliantly. The ‘Greens shook off this set-back and settled into the game and went about searching for an equaliser. This arrived on the 11 minute mark when Brian Jordan turned at the edge of the Thomastown box to fire home low and hard to make it 1-1.

Both teams fought for dominance as the half wore on. One probing attack led to Thomastowns Mick O’Neil taking the ball on the right wing and sprinting into the box where Dylan Whearty slid in to halt his progress. The ref pointed to the spot with Whearty adjudged to have fouled the Thomastown man. O’Neil dusted himself off and calmly slotted home the spotkick to give Thomastown the lead for a second time. Evergreen reacted immediately putting immense pressure on the Thomastown mid-field and defence for the rest of the half. This pressure resulted in a free kick outside the left edge of the box. Chris Whearty stepped up and elected to strike hard and low to the right of the Thomastown wall which included Evergreens Darragh Walsh who peeled away seconds before the strike. Whearty’s shot was true and accurate and it flew into the bottom corner to bring it back to 2-2 just on the stroke of half time.

Second Half

Straight from the kick-off, the Greens, playing into country end of an immaculate Princes Ground in Castlecomer, renewed their dominance from the first half. The game was few on chances however but this changed when Sean Barcoe rose majestically to power home a bullet header from a Damien Kelly free kick in the 62nd minute. At this stage Evergreen took control of the game and started to create chances on the break as Thomastown came forward in search of an equaliser.

Losing a man to a red card after a scuffle didn’t do their cause any good as the ‘Greens tightened their grip on the mid-field and broke constantly with chances falling to Hickey and Snype.

The scoring wasn’t over as a Thomastown clearance broke to Chris Whearty who was just inside his own half. He turned, looked up and observed the Thomastown keeper off his line. He arrowed a left-footed strike from all of 50 yards into the net leaving the keeper stranded. Surely a contender for goal of the season!

The game came to a conclusion a couple of minutes later and you could tell from the reaction of both teams that each had delivered a truly top class junior football match reminiscent of bygone eras. No quarter was given and none taken. It was fiercely competetive and marshalled so well by Nicky Marnell. This was truely a contest to remember.

Commiserations to Thomastown United but ultimately Evergreen showed that extra desire and quality which carried them through to the 2015 McCalmont Cup Final. #ForEverAndEver